September 11, 2001
by FemaleChauvinist
Summary: Everyone remembers where they were the day the Twin Towers fell. But what if Alice had "seen" it first? Would 9-11-01 be anything more than just another date to the rest of us?
1. Vision

**Disclaimer:** Recognizable characters and plotlines are the property of Stephenie Meyer; all original characters and story © 2015 FemaleChauvinist.

 _Do not post without permission. Do not copy/print without including the above disclaimer in its entirety._

 **A/N: I took the cover photo on a trip to Ellis Island in July of 2001. I don't even know why I took it, since city skylines don't normally interest me, but two months later I was glad I had! Barbie**

* * *

 _Dedicated to the men and women  
on United Airlines Flight 93._

* * *

 **Chapter One: Vision**

 _Edward claiming sixteen, sophomore_

 _In July 2001, Atta met with Binalshibh in Spain,  
where they coordinated details of the plot,  
including final target selection_

 **Edward**

I lay on the sofa in my room, my eyes closed as I listened to my music flooding the air around me. This state of complete relaxation, my mind empty of all thoughts — my own and anyone else's — was the closest I could come to sleep.

 _Edward! It's Alice — hurry!_

Jasper's frantic sending was like being jolted awake; my name would get through no matter how hard I worked to block out all thoughts.

I couldn't tell from his distant, panicked thoughts just what kind of trouble Alice was in, but I could tell he wasn't asking me to send Emmett or anyone else as reinforcements for some fight — he wanted me in particular.

Jumping to my feet, I shoved open my window and leapt barefoot to the ground, leaving my music playing to an empty room behind me.

I ran at top speed, and met Jasper a mile or so out. Alice lay limp in his arms, calmed by his influence nearly to unconsciousness. At least, I hoped that was what had done it.

"Jasper! What happened?"

"That's what I need you to tell me," he said, dropping to sit on a fallen log, his hollow eyes fixed on Alice. _Lissy, Lissy, Lissy,_ his thoughts echoed…I was the only one besides her who had ever heard his pet name for Alice.

I sat beside him, resting a hand on his shoulder. "What happened?" I repeated.

"She blanked out with a vision," he explained in a low voice. "I could feel her horror…when it ended she was trembling and clinging to me, but all I could get out of her was, 'Terrible. So terrible.' She was so upset that I calmed her as much as I could and came for you…can you get her to tell you?"

"I can try, Jasper," I said quietly, "but you'll have to release her, at least a little. I can't get a fix on her thoughts when you have her completely sedated like that."

He groaned, but began slowly lessening his influence. As Alice's thoughts grew stronger, I knelt in front of Jasper and put a hand on her arm. "Alice, what did you 'see'?" I asked softly.

She shook her head, clinging to Jasper and hiding her face in his chest. She was counting backward in Mandarin; not so much to block me as to keep whatever horror she had "seen" out of her own mind.

"Alice, please," I said brokenly. "How can we help if we don't know what you 'saw'?"

Images flooded her mind then as if bursting through a dam. It wasn't a voluntary replay for my sake; she was having the same vision over again. Planes flying into the Twin Towers. Smoke pouring out; people jumping out of upper story windows, falling like rag dolls until the towers themselves collapsed to the ground. In the background I saw two more planes, one flying into the Pentagon, the other into the Capitol building.

I closed my eyes against the utter horror of it, and Jasper gritted his teeth. _Not you, too, Edward! Please, tell me what she "saw"!_

Alice had pulled out of her vision and was gasping with soft sobs. I moved my hand to her shoulder. "Alice, it won't happen," I said firmly. "I promise you, we won't let it happen."

 _Let_ _ **what**_ _happen?!_

Jasper was about to snap, and in a few terse sentences I described the scene.

"Alice. What if we call the CIA or the NSA?"

"No good," she sobbed. "They won't listen — not in time to do anything to stop it!"

"Then we'll stop it, Lissy," Jasper growled. He would stop anything that upset Alice that badly, and my feelings weren't far behind.

"Calm her," I said to him in a low voice. "Let's get her home. She'll be a little more rational when the shock wears off."

Jasper nodded and stood smoothly with Alice in his arms. Together we ran back toward the house.

 **Next chapter coming next week!**

 **A/N: The dates at the beginning of each chapter are from Wikipedia; I know that's not the most accurate resource, but I thought it was good enough for the purposes of this story. It gave several possible choices for the intended target of Flight 93, and I just picked one, because of course Alice would "see" the original target. Barbie.**

 _I proofread all my stories at least once before posting, but if you see any mistakes I might have missed, please let me know!_

 _Please note that I have internet access only once a week, and may not have time to respond to all reviews/messages. If you have questions regarding my Twilight alternate history, check my profile first to see if they're answered there. (I also have a chronological list of my stories, so you can see where they fit in my timeline.) Thanks for your understanding! Barbie_


	2. Plans

**Chapter Two: Plans**

 _Atta, after deciding on the date for the attacks, informed Binalshibh of this date on August 29, 2001_

As the attackers worked out the details of their plans, so did we. There were nineteen hijackers for four planes; with only seven of us, the obvious thing was to have me on the flight with only four attackers.

The others were all going as mated pairs. No one had spoken the reason out loud, but I heard it in the backs of all their minds; _If anything goes wrong, I'll either save her or die with her._ A fiery plane crash was one thing we might not be able to walk away from.

"Of course, we could call Tanya to pair up with you, Edward," Emmett teased.

I grimaced. "No, thanks," I said dryly. "With the rest of you in mated pairs, the last thing I want is to give that succubus any ideas." I liked Tanya fine as a "cousin," but even if I had been attracted to her, I would have had serious problems with her extracurricular activities. "I'll be fine on my own."

"You will," Alice agreed. "At least…I can 'see' you as clearly as any of the rest of us."

"They're humans," Emmett scoffed. "This is gonna be easy."

"Take them alive if you can, but kill them if you have to," Carlisle ordered, his voice heavy with regret at the thought of taking any human life. I closed my eyes against the image of those people falling tens of stories to the ground, and wondered if he could be so compassionate if he had _seen_ the image the way Alice and I had.

Finally all our plans were made. Alice was back to her usual optimistic self, confident now that this was enough to change the future.

"All right!" Emmett said enthusiastically. "Let's roll."

 **oOo**

I walked across the sunny airport, my heavy makeup feeling thick and sticky on my face. Emmett had thought obscene cross-dresser comments at me as Alice put it on…until Rosalie came after him with her own makeup brush.

The makeup covered every bit of exposed skin on my face and neck; though it seemed a bit odd this time of year, I wore a pair of thin leather driving gloves. I needed the cover even inside the airport; there were whole walls of windows, and skylights with the sun pouring through.

I checked in under the name George Gabriel and made it through security without a problem.

I pretended to read as I waited at the gate for my boarding call; really I was scanning the thoughts of the passengers, picking out my targets. The flight only had about twenty percent of its full passenger load; just as well. We weren't concerned about witnesses, but the fewer innocent lives I had to worry about, the better.

Six of those innocent humans were in first class with the terrorists; they would be the hardest to protect.

I had the window seat, with no one on the aisle. As soon as the seatbelt sign went off, I pulled the shutter across the window, then got up and went to the restroom. Nothing could make me itch, but this makeup was coming awfully close.

It wouldn't matter on landing; no human eye would be able to follow my departure. And if someone did glimpse my sparkling skin, it would merely cement in their minds the only conclusion humans could come to.

 **Next chapter coming next week!**

 _I proofread all my stories at least once before posting, but if you see any mistakes I might have missed, please let me know!_

 _Please note that I have internet access only once a week, and may not have time to respond to all reviews/messages. If you have questions regarding my Twilight alternate history, check my profile first to see if they're answered there. (I also have a chronological list of my stories, so you can see where they fit in my timeline.) Thanks for your understanding! Barbie_


	3. Flight 93

**Chapter Three: Flight 93**

Three of the terrorists were in front of me; one, Ahmed al-Haznawi, was behind. I was about midway back, with Ahmed al-Nami and Saeed al-Ghamdi across the aisle in the row just ahead of mine, and Ziad Jarrah just behind the cockpit.

It was he I needed to watch the closest, though he was their pilot; it was the others who were going to storm the door.

I leaned my seat back, pretending to sleep as I listened to their thoughts. I wasn't really fluent in Arabic; I knew a little, but Eastern languages were more Alice's forte. Like Carlisle, I preferred the European ones. But like most people's, these men's thoughts were in images as well as words; I could follow them well enough to get a sense of when they were going to act.

I couldn't make my move before they did; it had to be obvious to all human witnesses that they were hijacking the plane. Not for my own protection — "George Gabriel" was a phantom who would vanish without a trace — but so the terrorists would be put safely behind bars. Their sentences wouldn't be as severe as if the full plot were known…it would have been death, making Carlisle's insistence on not playing judge and jury a bit hollow…but that couldn't be helped.

Forty-five minutes into the flight, I sensed the rising excitement in their thoughts. The two sitting together looked at each other, then one at a time glanced back toward the man sitting behind me.

I tensed, sitting up now as I waited. There was no possible chance that I would _fail_ , but a miscalculation could result in the death of innocents…some at my own hand if any blood was shed. Maybe even my own death, though even if the plane went down I should be able to leap clear before it burst into flames.

I couldn't fail to take the hijackers down, and those on board were doomed to die anyway according to Alice's vision…and yet if I lost any of them, that in itself was a degree of failure.

Behind me, al-Haznawi got up and started toward the cockpit; I leaned slightly forward. As he drew even with al-Nami and al-Ghamdi, the two across from me, they jumped up and the three rushed the cockpit.

But I was there. I had flashed to the front of the plane, standing in front of the door with my arms crossed. The men stopped short, nearly stumbling over each other; to their eyes I had appeared out of nowhere. "No one gets into this cockpit," I snarled.

Al-Ghamdi barked a short, guttural laugh. "You think you stop us?"

Al-Nami swung his fist to connect with my jaw; I didn't dodge the blow, and he gave a cry of pain, cradling a broken hand. I smiled menacingly, showing my teeth. "Yes. I think I do."

Their pilot, Jarrah, had stood to join them, but now he hesitated as al-Haznawi grabbed one of the passengers and wrapped an arm around her neck, holding a knife to her throat. (Though several of them had been held up at security for various reasons, they had made it on board with knives and other weapons.) "We pass, or she die."

"I don't think so," I said softly, dangerously. The woman was absolutely still, her eyes darting from side to side as her thoughts screamed in panic.

I snatched the knife from al-Haznawi's hand and was back in my place before he realized I had moved. Snapping the heavy blade in half, I dropped the pieces to the floor and ground them under my heel. "Let her go, or the next thing I break will be your hand." I knew all too well that he didn't really need a knife to kill her. But even if I had to lose her, it was a whole lot safer for the other passengers if I could keep any blood from being shed.

He released her slowly, reluctantly. Her eyes wide, she began backing toward the door, where two stewardesses were quietly ushering the rest of the first class passengers back into the economy section.

On the other planes, my counterparts each had a mate guarding that door, making sure the terrorists didn't go back into economy. I was on my own; I had both doors to guard. There was no reason it should be a handicap; from the humans' perspective I could be nearly in two places at the same time. Still, it meant I had to be as vigilant as possible over the terrorists' thoughts.

From the cockpit behind me, I could hear the pilot sending a mayday. "We have what appears to be a hijack attempt by four Middle Eastern men…No, they haven't breached the cockpit; a passenger seems to be trying to prevent them…affirmative, one passenger, but he's _succeeding_ ; the man can't be human."

I heard the mayday, but didn't waste mental focus on it.

"You let us pass, or we blow plane up with bomb."

I smirked at him. "You don't have a bomb," I called his bluff, seeing the truth in his thoughts.

The four looked at each other, the same idea in all their minds. I was only one man; not even a very big man. Surely I wouldn't stand a chance against all four of them.

My eyes narrowed to slits. "If all four of you come at me at once, I'll kill you," I promised quietly; I couldn't move that fast and avoid lethal blows. "As it is…" One by one, so quickly the fourth just barely realized what was happening before I struck him, I sent them down. Hard enough to knock them unconscious and give them a concussion; for Carlisle's sake not hard enough to kill them. I could feel the old monster rising up; the vigilante who drank the blood of murderers. These men were more despicable than any of the scum I had hunted down in city alleyways…

Swallowing hard, I turned my back on them and knocked on the cockpit door before pushing it open. "All taken care of, sir."

 **Next chapter coming next week!**

 _I proofread all my stories at least once before posting, but if you see any mistakes I might have missed, please let me know!_

 _Please note that I have internet access only once a week, and may not have time to respond to all reviews/messages. If you have questions regarding my Twilight alternate history, check my profile first to see if they're answered there. (I also have a chronological list of my stories, so you can see where they fit in my timeline.) Thanks for your understanding! Barbie_


	4. Airline Angels

**Chapter Four: Airline Angels**

The plane was cleared for an emergency landing at the nearest airport, and as soon as it came to a stop police and security officers and paramedics swarmed on board.

I had stood guard over the unconscious terrorists, ready to subdue them again at any sign in their thoughts that they were coming to.

One of the paramedics who boarded wanted to check me over, but I shook him off with a brusque assurance that I was fine.

Some of the police had an idea that I was somehow in on the hijacking attempt. I couldn't follow the line of their reasoning; if I was in on it, what had been gained by taking out my fellow attackers? Even if they were only faking — and the humans easily assured themselves that they were not — how had it aided the attempt any?

And if I _had_ disarmed and disabled four trained terrorists, then the pilot and copilot should have posed no problem for me; if my aim had been to take over the plane, why hadn't I done so?

Judging by the thoughts of those who had witnessed the incident, they seemed to share my logic. The woman I had saved, especially, was convinced that I had had nothing to do with the hijack attempt…and that I was something more than human. It had seemed safer to use all our vampire abilities and let the humans draw their completely erroneous conclusions than to try to appear human and not quite manage it.

I answered the officers' questions briefly or not at all, depending on whether they had to do with the attackers or with me. I really didn't care if they thought George Gabriel was guilty of a dozen terror plots; there was nothing to connect him in any way with Edward Cullen.

I stayed on board only long enough to be sure the humans had the terrorists fully secured before leaving the plane, moving so fast that to the humans' eyes, it was as if I had simply vanished from sight.

 **oOo**

 **AIRLINE ANGELS Apparent hijack attempts on 4 planes thwarted by mysterious passengers**

Alice ran her finger under the headline. "Hijackers," she whispered. "If that had been all…"

I understood; planes had been hijacked before and would be again. Normally we did nothing about it. Her vision echoed through our minds once again, stamped there indelibly. "We're the only ones, Alice," I murmured. "The only ones who ever have to see that."

"I know. If we had done nothing, everyone in the entire country would remember where they were on that day. Now…they don't even know what they were saved from."

"It's better that way," I said quietly. She wasn't after praise from the humans, I knew; the sober edge to her thoughts was for another reason.

"Yes…but if they don't know the danger, it's up to us to guard against another attempt."

"Do you 'see' another attempt?"

"No."

"Then let's leave it at that, Alice. Humans do terrible things to each other; they can't always have vampires to save them."

 **Epilogue coming next week!**

 _I proofread all my stories at least once before posting, but if you see any mistakes I might have missed, please let me know!_

 _Please note that I have internet access only once a week, and may not have time to respond to all reviews/messages. If you have questions regarding my Twilight alternate history, check my profile first to see if they're answered there. (I also have a chronological list of my stories, so you can see where they fit in my timeline.) Thanks for your understanding! Barbie_


	5. Epilogue

**A/N: The date of this epilogue is correct for my alternate history, as explained on my profile (Bella may also be a little out of character; I'm not entirely sure). Barbie**

 **Epilogue**

 _Two years later_

 **Bella**

I sat curled up in my room, looking through an old journal. I stopped at an article I had glued in about an attempted airline hijacking. I read the article, then read it again, more slowly. I had glued it in because I liked stories about "angels unaware," but now…

Seven angels. Surely it was little beyond credibility that one angel could handle up to four humans; for five they needed additional forces. It should have been four, or eight.

And now that I thought about it, the names seemed just a little _too_ angelic. Maybe it was just me, but I thought if angels were going to appear as humans, they'd use ordinary human names. Not John Smith, maybe, but nothing that would bring angels to mind.

I looked for a few minutes at the one photo that had accompanied the article. John Michaels, the caption said the passenger's name was, but if I squinted, the blurry, out of focus figure really looked an awful lot like Carlisle.

I still believed in angelic rescues, but in this case, I couldn't help thinking vampires might be the better explanation.

 **oOo**

I left the journal open on the kitchen table; when Edward came his attention was immediately caught by it. "Ah. You…guessed, then?"

I nodded.

He picked up the journal, looking at the picture. "None of us realized someone had gotten that photo of Carlisle until it was already in the paper; fortunately Alice told us no one would pick up on it."

"Even I didn't, really," I admitted. "I mean, I guessed it first, and then I could see it was Carlisle. Edward…why did you get involved?" There had been hijackings since then that had gone unstopped.

Edward sighed. "Alice 'saw' it," he said quietly. "'Saw' that it was more than just a normal hijack attempt. They were going to fly those planes into buildings…kill hundreds of people…" He shrugged. "We had to stop it." He turned toward me, frowning suddenly. "Bella…this was before we met; why do you have the article?"

I grinned. "Because I like stories about people who were probably really angels."

He gave me a crooked smile. "Well, we're hardly that…disappointed?"

"No. I guess since John Michaels is Carlisle, Elizabeth Michaels must be Esme, and since George Gabriel was alone, that's you. Which were the others?"

"Emmett and Rosalie were Micah and Helaina Raphael; Jasper and Alice were Angelo and Celeste Harper."

"Raphael isn't really the name of an angel…" I mused.

"He is in the Apocrypha. And since there are only two angels mentioned by name in the Bible, we had to get a little creative. Personally I thought Angelo and Celeste 'Harper' was a bit much, but Alice liked it and it wasn't worth making an issue of."

I giggled as I caught the pun for the first time. "I kind of like it," I admitted. "And Celeste fits Alice, somehow."

"Who would you have been?" he asked suddenly.

I blinked. "Um…I can't think of anything offhand that goes with Gabriel."

He grinned, pulling me to his side. "Just as long as it's Gabriel."

I smiled. "Did you really think it would be anything else?"

The End

 **A/N: "Angels unawares" refers to the Bible verse that says, "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." (Hebrews 13:2, KJV) Barbie**

 _I proofread all my stories at least once before posting, but if you see any mistakes I might have missed, please let me know!_

 _Please note that I have internet access only once a week, and may not have time to respond to all reviews/messages. If you have questions regarding my Twilight alternate history, check my profile first to see if they're answered there. (I also have a chronological list of my stories, so you can see where they fit in my timeline.) Thanks for your understanding! Barbie_


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